Of Cooties and Ice Cream
by Miss Starfire
Summary: Ever wonder how and when Tony realized he was in love with Pepper? Read and find out! A one-shot from the Last Chronicles saga.


**A/N:** Yet another one-shot for you! TLC writing is coming up slow. If you have read _The Fourth Year_ (one of the _Last Chronicles Saga_ stories), then you have already read this fic. You may still want to read it again, as I've extracted the flashback scene from _Chapter 3: May_ and I've added more detail to it. If you haven't read that particular set of fics and this is the first time you read this, then you're in for a _treat_! ALL PUNS INTENDED!

 **Summary:** Ever wonder how and when Tony realized he was in love with Pepper? Read and find out! A one-shot from the _Last Chronicles_ saga.

 **Standard disclaimer for all my stories** : My stories are graphic, angsty, frustrating, filled with cliffhangers, drama and foul language. Read at your own risk – medical issues and subsequent bills are not covered by yours truly ;) If you don't like, please don't read. I appreciate reviews and constructive feedback but if you cannot stand the plot, save yourself and me some time and walk away. You don't have to love all IMAA stories :) I don't own IMAA. My stories are better viewed by using the "half screen" option of FFNET

* * *

 **Of Cooties and Ice Cream**

A few weeks had passed since Andros Stark had journeyed into his past to rock Tony's world, in more ways than one. The notion that he would one day grow up, have kids of his own, and that those kids would give him grandkids, had never truly crossed his mind until he had come to believe that he would never actually have a chance to do so. Since then, one thought had led to another, and in the loneliness of his lab he had realized that if he had indeed been killed by Andros that day, the only regret he would have taken with him to the grave would have been never actually _telling_ Pepper that he liked her… _a lot_.

Maybe more than just: _a lot_.

And maybe more than just: _like-like_.

It was interesting, how these things always seemed to work: you never knew what you wanted – or how much you wanted it – until you realized you could not have it anymore.

The implication of what this feeling of regret meant for his situation was not alien to his mind. A few times before Andros had shown up, Tony Stark had already given some consideration to what the possible ramifications could be in telling his friend that he had been crushing on her for a while – especially after a hint of his maturing infatuation had come to the surface by telling her how much he had missed her when Basil Sandhurst had tried sucking his brain into the Mainframe. Thankfully for him, Pepper had written it off as him trying to make it up to her for rushing to kiss his tech before he had acknowledged her worried presence in the lab.

As far as he was concerned then, she did not need to know that he had ran past her on purpose, at the last possible second, when his gonads had shrunk at the thought of letting her know exactly just how ecstatic he was that she was alive and well after he had been led to believe that she had never existed in his life at all.

Nevertheless, the thought of them becoming romantically involved had never been present in his mind with sufficient time to allow for him to sit down and break it apart – until now; increasingly so ever since Extremis had cured his heart. Then again, it was not as if the thought did not merit surviving long enough to be analyzed – it was that either someone or something else always seemed to come up to interrupt his working mind. Whether it had been the surfacing of new enemies, the resurfacing of old ones, Rhodey's bitching about missing school again, or even Pepper herself dragging him with her to buy shoes, there was always something that got in the way.

This time, yet again, right as he was seriously weighing in the pros and cons of telling Pepper he saw her as more than just his silly and fiery friend, the object of his affection and reflection walked inside the temple. Just as it was becoming customary in these situations, the redhead had no idea the storm she was stirring inside of him by just casually gazing at him, let alone when she called his name.

"Hey there, Tony!" Pepper said, ice cream cone in hand, and walked towards his sitting spot.

He gave her a quick glance over his left shoulder and then looked away, lest his blush became apparent to her.

"Hey, Pep."

"What are you up to now?" she looked over his shoulder at the parts on the work table. "Ooh! Are you building a new armor? Or is it _my_ armor? You know, you still owe me my armor and you keep putting it off! Did you lose my diagram? Do you need a new one? Do you have any markers? I can totally redraw it for you right now and–"

"Pepper–"

"You've totally lost the diagram, haven't you?" she groaned before taking a lick off the ice cream. "I mean, you shouldn't need it since you're a freaking genius and you probably memorized it the moment you first saw it, but–"

"Pepper," he stated as he began turning around on his stool to face her, "I've told you that… uhm…" he interrupted himself when he took notice of an interesting fact. "Hey, Pep?"

The redhead, however, was oblivious to his change of tone.

"But that's still _so_ not fair that you're doing upgrades to everything, but you don't have time to build me my armor! You promised me, Tony! And one thing you don't do to friends is to break promises. I mean, honestly! How hard can it be? Are you having trouble remembering what I want? 'Cause you can tell me, alright? Friends don't have secrets. Friends share everything."

"Pepper, listen," he aimed his right index finger towards his face.

"And I think I've earned my armor, Tony!" Pepper whined. "I _really_ think I have! The bad guys are just getting worse and you and Rhodey aren't going to be enough soon!"

"Pepper," his finger now pointed at her face.

"And I know I need practice, but you never let me be out there in the armor for more than five minutes! What gives?"

"PEPPER!"

" _What_?!"

"You have ice cream on your chin."

"What?" she stated and then randomly patted her palm on her face, only to realize that he was right. "Oh, crap! Do you have a tissue?"

"Nope," he joked and then smiled when he saw an opportunity to exercise one of his favorite past times: flustering the redhead. "You're gonna have to lick it."

"What?" her head recoiled at his ludicrous suggestion. "I can't lick it!"

She messily rubbed off the rest of the melting, frozen treat from her chin with the back of her hand, only to then groan in annoyance when her hand ended up dripping with even more ice cream. Her frustration increased tenfold when her chin continued to trickle the melting treat, leaving a stream of drying stickiness on her skin.

"Here," she practically gritted her teeth as she shoved the cone into Tony's hand. "Make yourself useful and hold that for me. I'm gonna go wash off."

"OK."

He watched her stomp her way to the sink, and a wide smile appeared on his face at her hyperbolic antics. She swiftly washed her hands and face, and as she turned around to head back to him, a cruel idea popped in his mind. A second before she was to grab her cone back from him, he pulled it towards his mouth and licked one side of the ice cream without any sign of doubt. Her eyes went wide as saucers, and in order to keep his momentum going, Tony made sure that every other side of the ice cream had his germs on it before he handed it back to her with a satisfied smile.

"Here, Pep."

"TONY!" she cried. "What did you do that for? Do you know how long I had to wait in line to buy that? It's soooooo hot outside! All the ice cream places are full!"

"And?" he shrugged and licked the cone again. It was rather tasty. "What's the problem? You can keep eating it."

"No, I can't!" she huffed and shied away from the cone he was offering her. "You just _licked_ it!"

"So? Didn't you just say friends share everything?"

 _Damn!_

He _had_ been listening to her rant!

 _The one time he does!_

"Well, yeah," she hesitated, trying her best not to let his charm get him out of the world of pain she wanted to put him through for his atrocious deed. She had stood in line for nearly an hour to buy that double-scoop of ice cream cone. She would make damn sure that he paid for wasting her money and her time.

"But-but if you wanted some," she continued, praying her voice would stop wavering, "you could've just _told_ me and I could've gotten you a spoon or a small bowl and we could've split it up!"

"How is that any different than what I'm doing right now?" he asked in a teasing tone, purposely trying to sound dense about it, and then gave the cone another lick. He had never actually flirted with her this much before, and he was definitely enjoying her reactions to his bantering. "Besides, it's not like we haven't shared cooties before."

"Wah?" she gulped, her head hunching closer to his in shock. So much for controlling the quivering of her voice. "W-When?"

"What do you mean _when_? All the time!"

"All… the… time?"

"Yeah! You're always drinking from my straw at school."

"Uhm…" she swallowed hard. "Huh… I… well… that's… that's different still."

"How?" he asked with a smile, stood up from his chair and then closed the distance between them, only barely noticing the small tint of red that was now forming across her cheeks. "I don't see how it's different. Here, I'll prove it to you. Lick it."

"What?" she took a step back. "No!"

"Lick it!" he took a step closer.

"I said no, Tony! Quit it!" another step back.

"Why not? It's the same!" another step closer.

"It's not the same!" she insisted, eyes now closed, but this time she did not move.

"Why is it not the same?" his voice lowered by an octave, and he leaned his head down and to the side to stare at her face. "What would make it the same?"

"It-it… well…" she opened her eyes but looked away when she realized how close Tony's face was to hers.

"It, what?"

"The same…" she faltered for a moment, but not long enough to truly filter what was coming out of her mouth. "It would only be the same if… if…"

"If, what?"

"If… if I…" she began and then looked down before finishing her thought in a whisper, "If I _kissed_ you."

Tony grinned, yet he tried his best to keep his cool despite his quickly-beating heart, and when the appropriate response finally came to him, he uttered it without hesitation.

"What's stopping you?"

The use of the familiar inquiry was not lost to her. She recalled asking the same question to him, months ago, when he had posed the prospect of kissing her for the invaluable information that her researching had uncovered. This time, however, the situation was slightly different. There was no imminent dangerous situation to resolve. There was no distraction she could rely upon to do what he had done to her: taking the high road. There were only the two of them and her quickly melting ice cream cone, in the temple, on this lazy and hot Sunday afternoon.

At a loss of what to say, she resorted to just look.

She lifted her gaze to his eyes, slowly, almost sheepishly, and what she saw in his blue orbs was something she had never seen before. Ever. On him. At all. She could not even begin to describe it – she was not sure if she could – but if there was only one thing she could be certain about it was that the look he was giving her was not one of just pure friendly affection.

And she was not sure enough – _brave_ enough; hopeful enough, to call it: love.

He took another step towards her, dispelling in her the belief that they could not be standing any closer and made her blush even deeper.

His eyes were fixed on hers.

His face tilted.

Her heart skipped a beat.

And had he not just now licked his lips and his eyes had momentarily traveled to her mouth and back to her eyes, she would have never believed that Tony was about to do what she thought he would never do to her.

 _With_ her.

They both closed their eyes, leaned even closer to the other, and then they both heard something that startled the magic moment out of them.

"Man! It's hot as hell out there!"

Unbeknownst to Rhodey, it was hot as hell in the temple as well, but for different reasons. Or it had been, until he had scared the bejesus out of the duo before him.

Pepper's screech of surprise was coupled with a sudden upward jerking of her arms. The movement caused a collision between her hands and Tony's, and the result was that Tony now had ice cream all over his face.

 _Her_ ice cream. _And_ the cone. Or whatever had been left of it after it had crunched to pieces on his face, was now residing on Tony's flustered cheeks.

Her first instinct was to gasp and cover her mouth with her hands. Her second thought was to silently curse at Rhodey for walking in to the temple at the worst possible time. Her third and final act, was remembering how much she had been looking forward to eating her treat until Tony had ruined that for her.

The last reaction was what prompted her boisterous laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHA! That's what you get, Stark!"

Rhodey frowned and stared back and forth between his two friends. "I was gonna say: _sorry for scaring you_. But now I'm not sure if I even need to apologize."

"You don't!" Pepper agreed. "Tony just got what was coming to him! He stole, _STOLE,_ my ice cream cone!"

"I didn't _steal_ anything," Tony grumbled as he licked some of the frozen food from his lips and cleaned off some of the melted portions from his neck with the back of his hands. "I just wanted you to share!"

"Without asking?" she pointed out.

"When does he ever ask for anything?" Rhodey said and waved them off on his way towards the closest chair, Tony's portable video game console in hand. "You know he just takes whatever he wants! Especially when it's people's food. You're still not off the hook for eating my French toast, man!"

"Get over it, Rhodey," Tony grumbled before another awful idea came to mind. It only took him a nanosecond, and before Pepper could do anything about it, the inventor placed his ice-cream dirtied hands on her cheeks, pulled her to him and pressed his right cheek to her left.

"TONY!"

"What?" he asked innocently as he further transferred the ruined food to her face by continuing to rub them together. "You said we could share the cone!"

"Not like this!" she replied, trying to sound irritated, yet her tone made her sound everything but. Her face was beaming, she was holding back giggles, and her hands were resting half on his shoulders and half on his chest, basically pretending she was trying to push him away from her. Tony's smile of victory was priceless, and not even the ice cream in between could stop him from feeling her soft skin brush against his. The thought made him smile even wider, and he swore he felt Pepper lean her body closer to his.

In their bliss, neither teen realized that Rhodey was not beyond documenting this moment with his phone for them, although for his very own extorting reasons. Later on, however, the digital evidence of this apparently embarrassing encounter would become a treasured item by the blue-eyed boy for years to come.

The chuckles finally subsided when their faces became uncomfortably sticky, leaving them with no option but to pull apart. Still caught in their own little world, Tony and Pepper helped each other clean up, and it was a miracle that their bantering at the sink did not turn into an all-out water-splashing fight. The redhead carefully wiped his face and neck clean with a wet towel, and he did the same for her, and the teens continued to be unaware of the curious looks they were receiving from their common friend.

Rhodey had always known that Tony had a soft spot for the redhead, and he was sometimes surprised at the lengths the genius would go to in order to satisfy whatever need or want she had – no matter how childish it was. More recently than before, however, Rhodey had started to wonder if Tony was even consciously aware that his actions, more often than not, were starting to resemble ones performed by a guy in love rather than a close friend.

Granted, Pepper's batting of her eyes and the sweet tone of voice she sometimes used to get her way did affect Rhodey, too. But he doubted that there was anything, at this point in time, that Tony would deny her while Rhodey still could. He knew that the billionaire had started to work on her suit – to his shock, and that was something that Rhodey never thought he would see Tony doing for her. Tony knew that Rhodey did not think putting a suit on Pepper was a good idea, but the inventor always defended his choice by stating that he much preferred Pepper to jump into battle under his watch than allowing her to do it with no protection at all, just as she would do in either case.

" _I can't stop her from doing what she does,"_ Tony had told Rhodey. _"But I can try to make it so that she doesn't hurt herself too badly. Or worse."_

Rhodey continued to steal furtive glances at them while he pretended to pay attention to everything but their interactions. The conversation between the two continued for at least a couple of hours, swapping from one random topic to the next, as it was always the case with those two. And, just as it was also almost always the case, Tony listened and nodded along more than he talked.

Eventually, silence finally reigned in the temple when the magic of satellite TV made the ginger focus on a _Breakdancing with Celebrities_ marathon while Tony continued to work on repairing the suit. Rhodey, taking advantage of the girl's distraction, walked up to Tony to tease him with the picture he had taken of them behaving like lovebirds – a term Tony had never liked to hear applied to him.

The boy had expected Tony to groan, to demand that he erase the image from his phone – perhaps even involve Pepper in double-teaming him into accepting their terms. Rhodey had predicted all sorts of denial actions from Tony, including some insulting ones. What he had not anticipated, however, was the inventor's actual response.

"Send it to me," he said with a smile before he continued working on one of the gauntlets of the suit. "I want a copy of it."

Tony was too invested in calibrating the new repulsor mechanism of the gauntlet to notice Rhodey's jaw drop, his eyes travel to a giggling and cheering Pepper, pumping her fists at her favorite show, and the knowing smile that befell him afterwards. It was finally happening, despite how queasy it made him feel: Tony Stark was growing up because of her.

"OK," Rhodey finally said and put away his phone. "I think I'm gonna head out now."

"You sure? We still have time to kill before your mom starts calling us back home."

"Yeah. I'm not going home, though."

"You're not?" Tony asked, eyes still on his tech.

"Nope. Gonna stop at the library to pick up some books to study for tomorrow's test."

"Nerd," Tony chuckled. "History's gonna be the same tomorrow, Rhodey. Why don't you stick around? I'm not leaving for another couple of hours."

"Nah," Rhodey shrugged. "I don't think I can stand another moment of Pepper screaming at the judges."

Tony laughed and slipped a speedy peek at the redhead. "Is that what that's been? I've been hearing roaring and groaning, but I've been tuning it out."

"Aren't you lucky," Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"It's called: multitasking. It's what–"

"Geniuses do. I know, I know."

"Damn straight," Tony joked before he sighed and wiped his forehead with his hand. "I need to amp up the AC in here. The heat's gonna kill my tech."

"Or maybe you can just go for ice cream. It's what normal people do when it's this freaking hot. Although, _you_ may need to watch a video on how to _eat_ ice cream. Typically, people don't eat it off each other's face."

Tony smirked, catching his friend's taunt, threw his tools onto the table and then stood up from his chair.

"Maybe you're right. Why don't you check in your history books how ice cream eating habits have changed over time while I learn it in practice?"

Rhodey scratched his right eyebrow with his right middle finger, prompting Tony to do the same with his neck. The silent yet friendly exchange of insults lasted but a few seconds before Tony walked up to Pepper and surrounded her shoulders from behind while she was still sitting on the small couch he had brought over, days ago.

"Wanna go get the ice cream I owe you?"

"YES! FINALLY!" she said, shot up from where she sat, turned around to face him and pointed an accusing finger at him. "And you're buying me the most expensive one, too!"

"Fine," he crossed his arms over his chest to pretend he was not completely alright with her demands.

"And you're taking me there in the suit!"

"OK!"

"And I'm not sharing it with you!"

"Alright!" he lifted his hands in a defensive gesture. "Anything else, _ma'am_?"

"Yes," she walked around the couch, grabbed his hand and began pulling him with her towards the armor. "Stop calling me: ma'am!"

"OK, _Miss_ ," Tony replied before he turned around to where he had last seen Rhodey, only to find that he was gone.

xxxXXXxxx

The line had been long; longer than it had been when she had been here earlier, but thankfully, they were now next to be served, and talking to Tony while waiting had made the delay feel much shorter than it had been. It felt odd, though, to be here with Tony by her side, doing things he typically did not do. It was rare for him to leave the temple to engage in menial tasks such as being a normal teenager, but she was happy that today he was making an exception for her.

A great exception, as it turned out, since he had been avidly responding to her pointless rants, had been laughing at her dumb jokes, and – most notably, he was now holding her hand. Again.

She had expected for some physical contact to take place while he flew her here and then back, but there had been a few occasions since landing a few blocks away from the ice cream shop, that Tony had either briefly held her hand, thrown his arm around her shoulders, and he had even gone as far as resting his hands on her hips. He had provided _reasonable_ explanations for each gesture, of course, but in the almost two years of knowing him, he had never willingly touched her this much, for no true apparent reason.

Maybe she was simply overreacting or overanalyzing his actions of the day, but how could she not do so after they had almost kissed?

 _Yup_ , Pepper nodded in her mind. _That was going to be a kiss!_

It was a testament to how easy their minds could move on with the next topic at hand, the fact that neither of them had made any mention of the moment in the lab. It was as if the situation had never happened, and while it worked well for her when she was the one initiating some sort of loving gesture for him that turned out to be ignored or grossly overlooked, this was not in the vicinity of those failed attempts. This was much more relevant and significant: this, he had started himself.

"What would you like, sir?"

The voice of the guy at the ice cream counter snapped Pepper from her wondering. Her eyes shifted from staring at nothing in particular to browsing the menu she had already memorized while waiting their turn, a daring change of plans coming to mind. She had already told Tony what she wanted, and he was going to order two of the same item, per her request, but before the inventor even responded to the man's question, the redhead intervened instead.

"We'll have a #4."

Tony furrowed his brow and stared at her in confusion.

"Two #4's?" the genius asked and Pepper shook her head.

"Just one," she smiled to the cashier, who promptly turned around and relayed the request to one of the other employees to begin satisfying said order.

Tony eyed Pepper with curiosity, leaned closer to her while they waited for their cup to be prepared, and then whispered to her.

"Why'd you change your mind?"

"To prove a point," she replied with a sly smile.

"Which is?"

"You'll see."

The boy furrowed his brow in delighted interest, but he said nothing else. It only took a couple of minutes for them to receive the treat, pay for it and then move out of the line, their destination being the farthest table-for-two in the establishment. The breeze was still warm, but the covered area outside was enough to bear the hot weather while they ate their frozen food. Most people were buying and flying anyway, so the duo was practically eating alone. The sun had begun lowering in the horizon, and that alone gave the entire moment a semi-romantic atmosphere neither of them had anticipated they would come across at a place like this.

After sitting on opposite sides of the table, Pepper placed the ice cream cup in the middle of it. She then grabbed the two spoons that had been dipped in the mountain of ice cream, tossed one in the nearest trashcan and then used the remaining one to grab a spoonful of the treat.

Spoon in her right hand, her eyes traveled up to face his quiet and curious posture. She gave him a small smile, leaned closer to him and then aimed the spoon towards his mouth.

"Open up!"

He once breathed sharply through his nostrils to show his amusement at seeing Pepper take charge of the situation, but he opened his mouth nonetheless. Pepper cupped her left hand and placed it under his chin to catch anything that could spill, and with her right hand she literally spoon-fed the genius. Tony took his time chewing the food, opting for allowing it to mostly melt in his mouth and slid down his throat. Once the ice cream was gone, he gave her a thankful smile.

"It's good," he said, his eyes again fixed on hers.

"It's the best," she replied before she filled the spoon with another load of ice cream, from the same spot she had gathered Tony's portion. Tony knew what was coming – he had figured it out the moment she had thrown away the second spoon. But knowing what was going to happen and seeing it happen, were two completely different things.

The spoon quickly disappeared inside her mouth. She twisted it while still inside to catch all of the pieces of the treat she could, and finished the job by licking both sides of it once she pulled it out. She licked her lips and teeth to make sure no chocolate residue was still stuck there, and once she knew nothing would get in the way of her next words, she floored Tony with her statement.

"See?" she played with the spoon in her hand as she spoke. "I'm not against your cooties. I'd gladly share cooties with you, anytime."

Tony lowered his head, chuckled lightly in slight embarrassment and then nodded. The near-kiss scene replayed in his mind, and for the tenth time since it had happened, he cursed Rhodey for his ill-timed arrival to the temple.

When he finally lifted his eyes again, a second spoon of ice cream was waiting for him. This time, she did not have to order him to open his mouth. They took turns feeding each other, in between talking about the park, the ice cream shop, the disappearing sun and the history test of the next day – all but their near-kiss. Before they knew it, they were down to the last spoonful and with it the last rays of sun went away.

The ice cream shop closed. The patrons left. There was no reason to stay there any longer. Yet, neither of them made a move to leave. They continued whispering their conversation over the cicadas' hums, coolly and randomly playing with each other's hands until Pepper's phone beeped. The redhead skimmed the message she had just received and smiled sadly, encouraging Tony to speak again.

"Dad calling you home?"

"No," she replied, eyes still on the device as she responded to the text. "It's Happy."

"Oh," his tone of voice sounded a tad more hurt and disappointed than he had wanted it to be. "I… I-I didn't know you guys were still going out."

"Occasionally," she shrugged and placed the phone back on the table. "We're going backyard wrestling next weekend."

"Backyard wrestling?" Tony rapped his fingers on the table, his eyes staring away from her in an attempt to mask his jealousy. The last couple of times he had put down the idea of dating the jock, he had ended up regretting it. He truly did not want to the end the day on a bad note. "Is that even a thing?"

"I'll tell you next week, hopefully."

"Hopefully?"

She shrugged again, her eyes also not being able to make contact with the inventor. "Yeah, you know, if nothing _else_ comes up. I… Happy's ideas are weird and all, but I like them. They're entertaining, if I get to actually finish the date."

"Why wouldn't you finish it? Something wrong?"

No quicker than the words left his mouth, his genius side kicked in and he figured out what she had meant. He honestly had not tried to put a dent on her dating life, but he had been in fact responsible for the majority of her and Happy's dates ending abruptly. This was mainly why he was not aware that the ginger and the jock still went out on occasion, which also meant that some dates had actually been successful on Pepper's end.

"I'm sorry," he added a moment later, and she immediately knew he had figured out the reason for why her dating options were taking a hit. "I'll try not to piss anyone off next weekend."

She shrugged again. "It's not really your fault, Tony. You can't help when the bad guys show up. You can't tell when the next threat to the city's gonna happen. It just happens and your job is to clean it up. I just…" she exhaled. "I just sometimes wish it wasn't this hard, you know?"

"Yeah. I think I do know."

"And, I-I know I'm not you," she smiled at him. "I'm not even the real hero here, but I want to think that, as part of Team Iron Man, I help people as much as you do. Or at least close enough. I… I mean, I know I only do recon for you, but… but I hope it's important enough."

"It is, Pepper," he held her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. "You help me and Rhodey, a lot. We… we'd be SOL without you."

Her gaze focused on their hands for a second, and then it traveled past Tony to the tree line behind him. She remained quiet for almost a full minute, contemplating Tony's words, the day's actions and Happy's text, and she then finally spoke again.

"I'm not going to do it, so don't worry. But I sometimes wish I could tell Happy who you are. Who _we_ are. It's hard for me to keep ditching him like I do. It's hard to make it work when he doesn't know what I do for Iron Man. I know he's better off not knowing, but it makes dating even harder for me."

"I understand," Tony replied, his hand still around hers. His mind, for a split second, brought to the forefront the choice he had made about not telling Whitney about Iron Man and instead let the relationship go. Granted, his decision had been best for him for other reasons as well, but he could relate to Pepper's current conundrum more than she knew.

"But you know what, Pep?" he alternated between staring at their hands and looking at her. "Maybe… maybe everything would be better for you if… if you were with someone who already knew what you do for us… for me. Someone who already knew about Team Iron Man."

She chanced a look to his eyes and saw it again: that same indiscernible look on him; the same one she had seen on his face before he had leaned down to kiss her today at the Makluan Temple. They locked eyes for what felt like the longest moment ever, neither of them making a sound until Pepper sighed loudly and pulled her hand away from his.

"Maybe I should," she said. "I'll… I'll think about it."

"Me too," he replied with a nod.

Another short moment of silent meditation transpired, and this time it was broken by Pepper's phone beeping again.

"It's my dad," she said, stood up from her seat and threw away the leftover trash. "I should've been home an hour ago."

"Oh, nuts!" he followed her cue, stood up as well and then grabbed her hand one more time to lead them back to the woods for him to suit up. "Come on, Pepper. I'll take you home in no time."

She silently thanked him with a nod and allowed him to guide her away to the secluded spot they had touched down at earlier when they arrived. She remained quiet while he put on the armor, carried her in his arms and took to the skies and also while he took her to the back alley of her apartment complex. Once there, he removed his faceplate, carefully placed her feet back on the ground, and then held her by her shoulders with his hands.

"I had a great day, Pep. I hope you did, too."

"I did," she said with a small amount of guilt, now realizing that she felt as if she had cheated on Happy today. "Thanks for the ice cream."

"It was my pleasure," he smiled at her before he added, "Thanks for the cooties, too."

She giggled and shook her head, and before she lost the tiny amount of bravery she had within her, she stood on her tiptoes, rested her weight against his armored chest and then propelled herself up to give him a quick hug.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school, OK, Tony?"

"Yeah," he said, almost unable to process a response as she broke the embrace and waltzed away from him. "Sweet dreams, Pepper."

"Sweet dreams, Tony," her retreating form said over her right shoulder.

She rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, leaving Iron Man standing there, almost at a loss. When he finally closed his faceplate, it was only because he remembered he still had to go home, and because he figured he just could not stay where he was all night.

The day, as clashingly eventful and non-eventful as it had been, had given him much to think about; much to question. However, the only thing he knew he did not have to ponder about anymore was the fact that it was now downright irrefutable that he, Tony Stark, could very well see himself dating his friend, Pepper Potts. And no one, anywhere, ever, would be able to make him believe otherwise.

Pepper was his perfect match – his soulmate, if such a thing even existed, and he would gladly spend the rest of his life showing her and proving to her that they were meant to be. He would happily take on the long journey of a lifetime of strengthening their bond and cherishing every second they spent together. He realized he was willing and able to make her happy, in any way he could.

And that was how Anthony Edward Stark knew he was in love.

Loving her and all she stood for was what he wanted to do.

So he did.


End file.
